Song of The Wind - Cello Practice Tips
Hopefully you have already seen the Song of The Wind Preview Technique lesson and are ready to practice the full tune. I love the momentum that we start to gain about at this stage of Suzuki Book 1 for cello. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star can take some students ages to learn. French Folk Song and Lightly Row usually come a bit faster with fewer new techniques to acquire along the way. With Song of The Wind you should be moving more quickly just adding details to your playing like pivot fingers and bow lifts.
The new techniques were covered in the Song of the Wind Preview lesson so if you haven’t already worked out pivot fingers and bow lifts then please refer to the previous lesson. If you have, then you are ready to play the tune. There are no new notes or rhythms so if you can sing it then you can play it! Singing the song and doing lots of listening are the quickest way to playing it right with minimal incorrect repetitions. It’s easy to either lose track of the repeated notes or hear it in your head wrong. Singing the melody and listening really help to hear it right. If all else fails you can read the music and count the number of 4’s. Play along with the video until the right pattern sounds right to you and you’ll be just fine.
The two dots before the double bar line indicate a repeat. If there was a mirror of that sign earlier in the piece then we would repeat back to that place in the music. Since there is no origination repeat sign indicated, you go to the beginning of the piece. Basically, play through the whole piece twice then you are done!
Pro Tip
Listening is practicing! One of my favorite professionals would always remind me that at Juilliard his teacher required him to listen as many hours as he practiced. He felt that he learned as much listening as he did practicing!
As we learn to play Song of The Wind from Suzuki Book 1 for cello, let’s make sure that your posture is setting you up for success down the road. Here is a “handy” cello posture checklist:
- Posture – feet flat on the floor, cello between your knees, touching at your sternum, sitting straight up, shoulders relaxed, elbow out like a kickstand, straight EWP (elbow-wrist-pinkie)
- Left hand – thumb and fingers bent (making a “C”), fingers arched and contacting the string with the pad of the fingertip, thumb bent and under 2nd finger
- Bow path – bow travels straight across the string (t-bow), midway between the fingerboard and the bridge (forte-freeway)
- Bow hand – thumb slightly bent, index finger touching the stick between the first and second knuckle, hand pronated, fingers slightly apart — not overly spread or bunched together
- Keep fingers down as you play – as you ascend the string don’t lift the finger you just played when you place the new finger. As you descend place all 4 fingers and then peel off the fingers one by one.
- Check intonation – verify your intonation. Play with the video, use a tuner, watch your hand in a mirror to check that you are on the tapes. Don’t assume, verify.